Vicious rent control cycles..

Rent control is out of control. Now it’s making a comeback.

Which may leave us right back where we started. The debate over rent control is a perennial in Ontario politics, as predictable as the election cycle. In today’s tight housing market, with a close political contest looming, history is about to repeat itself. For better or for worse.

Overheated housing markets reduce the turnover from families that would typically move up to starter homes, freezing out future tenants. That’s when the news cycle, the political cycle, and economic cycles come into play.

Reclaiming the moral high ground, the NDP has proposed a law to level the rental playing field: It wants to close a so-called loophole that exempts any post-1991 apartments from controls, arguing that tenants in newer rental stock are vulnerable to extortion from rapacious landlords.